The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking
by Acepilot6
Summary: Phil DeVille, in the midst of a midlife crisis, allows his subconcious to take him for a ride through fantasies and nightmares. PK, PA and others. Please review!
1. 430am Apparently they were travelling

**The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking  
**Acepilot

Disclaimer: Inspired by and partly based on the album of the same name, written by Roger Waters. Contained lyrics were written by Roger Waters and remain copyrigted by him, and his property. I am making no money from this story.

Author's Note: For the purposes of posting here I was forced to remove the lyrics, thus sterilising this story a bit. The complete version, with lyrics and artwork, can be found at the Animatoon's forum, in the PG-13 section. Hope you enjoy this, anyway, and please review.

**Part I: 4:30am (Apparently They Were Travelling Abroad)**

_So, here we are_.

Phil DeVille stared at himself in the mirror and wondered quite when his hair had turned that grey. He wondered how those wrinkles under his eyes had become so prominent. And he wondered when his eyes stopped sparkling with mischief and became so dulled by defeat.

_Another day, another dollar. One more hopeless day of nothingness after another. And for what?_

"Phil? Are you coming to bed soon? The light's keeping me up."

He cast a glance to the door that led into the bedroom. "I'll be there in a second."

_For a marriage with no spark, for a life with no fun, for a present with no future._

He splashed some water on his face, as if to blot out the evidence of age that he saw there before stalking into his bedroom, making sure to flick off the light as requested on the way.

He looked at the bed, where his wife of so many years - the mother of his children - lay.

Facing away from him. Toward the far wall.

There was a time - not that many years ago, he liked to hope - that the very sight of her lying there was enough to work him into a frenzy of lust. Now they barely made eye conact anymore. Once time-honoured traditions of after-work cuddles by the fireplace and love-making to the wee-small hours had been replaced with cursory greetings, silence at the dinner table and two people whose lives intersected only when neccesary, frequently not when wanted.

He was worried she was cheating on him.

But she wouldn't do that.

Would he?

He pulled back the covers and slipped beneath them, tempted for a moment to wrap his arm around her waist and hold her, but deciding against it at the last minute. Best not to wake her...she was unbearable when grumpy.

He stared at the ceiling for what felt like forever...then -

**"Wake up! You're dreaming!"**

Phil jolted back to conciousness with a start, barely realising he had, indeed, ever left. He glanced at the clock for a bare second, noting that he must have been asleep as it was now 4:30am. He looked over at his wife, who had woken him. "What?" he muttered fuzzily.

She glared sleepily. **"You were dreaming,"** she mumbled. "Go back to sleep."

_Had_ he been dreaming? There was a strange, blurred picture in his minds eye, something he couldn't quite grasp.

Then, it came to him. "We were moving away from the border," he decided, seeing it as clear as day.

"Huh? What border?" she asked, now clearly asleep herself.

Phil shook his head to clear it of confusion, before finally laying his head back down on the pillow and allowing sleep to properly claim him.

[lyrics removed

I rub at my eyes distractedly, trying to stay awake in the tempting face of sleep. I glance over at Kimi in the passenger's seat, who is taking advantage of her off-shift on the driving to catch a nap, and part of me regrets not doing so myself earlier. We're well past the border gates now, but part of me still gets nervous everytime I cross the national lines. Driving around Europe is considered fun by many, but I think next time I'll give it a miss.

Though it has had it's...advantages.

I glance in the rear-view mirror at the two hitchhikers. One, the male, is slumped and asleep but still giving off an air of...arrogance - danger, almost. His purple hair is brushed back out of his eyes, which are currently shut, of course, but I remember them being disconcertingly piercing. I let my stare drift across to the woman -

Who, to my shock, is awake.

**_[lyrics removed  
_**  
The devastatingly beautiful blonde winks at me in the rearview and I grin back at her in response. It's been like this since we picked them up just outside of France, but I don't know if she's spoken a word.

I want to hear her voice.

"Anyone hungry?" I ask, loudly, startling the two sleepers from their rest.

Kimi mutters that she is, but falls quickly back to sleep. The man nods, saying "Yeah, I could go a bite," in a thick New York accent - contradicting the near-perfect English tones he spoke to me in when we first picked them up.

The blonde merely nods.

**_[lyrics removed_**

Under the guise of stretching my legs, I follow her around the back of the service station, where a single, flickering light globe provides a dim sense of light. She launches herself at me, and I feel her lips touch mine without hesitation or doubt. "I thought you'd never come," she whispers against my mouth, and I nearly buckle at the sound of her voice - it feels like some deliciously forbidden fruit.

"What's your name?" I ask - I can think of nothing more than that to say, and I can't rest until I know it.

"Angelica," she says, sliding her lips along my jaw. "Yours?"

"Philip," I tell her, for some reason using my full name. As if it means something that is unique and only for this moment.

Only for this girl. Not for my wife, who only ever seems to call me Phil.

**_[lyrics removed_**

"I think if we stay much longer our fellow travellers will begin to wonder where we've gone," I mutter, though the temptation to strip her bare and make love to her here and now is a very real thing.

"No, they'll never notice," Angelica tells me. "It'll be dusk before long."

I go to contradict her, noting that it's barely past 4:30am, but sure enough the sun is setting on the westward horizon and casting everything in a surreal orange glow.

Funny time of day for it to be doing that, really.

Disregarding the uncharacteristic solar cycle, I turn back to her. "Would you like to see something special?"

**She said:**

---

Part 2 coming soon. Please review!

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	2. 433am Running Shoes

**The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking  
**Acepilot

**Disclaimer - **This story is based on the album by Roger Waters. Any references are intentional and I'm not earning money or intending any actual plagarism.

**Part II - Running Shoes**

"Yes."

My breathing suddenly falls short as I watch her clothes seemingly melt away. Her eyes never leave mine as the sun dances around us before finally settling into the twilight hour. Everything finally turns to shadow except the green in her eyes. The rest of her face becomes bland and uninterested, but her eyes sparkle and dance like nothing I've ever seen before.

**_lyrics removed_**

We kiss again as I hold her liquid form in as tight an embrace as I can manage. She's an elusive prey, slipping an sliding from my arms even as I try to hold her. Finally as I gve up on her she becomes whole again, giggling at my predicament without opening her mouth.

Sighing in defeat as she smirks at me, I lead her around the back of the building again until we're standing in front of the service station. The man and Kimi are gone, probably off somewhere alone, I think idly. There lies my car, my Lamborghini, my way out of this world and finally into the one I want to be in.

"Want a ride?"

**_lyrics removed_**

"Yes," she repeated.

We tore off away from the gas station, sliding effortlessly toward the sunset, toward the trees that provided an inviting cover away from the world, the dirt road that felt strangely familiar under my feet, under my wheels, away from the place where we had left my wife behind.

**_lyrics removed_**

Tucked away in a grove, I finally allow myself to succumb to my desires, what I want and what I know she wants. For just a handful of moments, the worries that dominate my mind disappear.

"I want to make love to you."

She grins darkly at me. "You think you do. You'll never make love to me. You don't want to make love to me."

An alarm bell begins wailing in the background.

Her eyes turn pitch black. "You want to f--- me."

My blood runs cold as I recognise the truth in her words, and that stupid alarm won't shut up. The forest drains away from around us and we're left, cold and naked in an unforgiving world. And the damn alarm is _still_ ringing.

**_lyrics removed_**

"Shut the useless thing up!" I scream as the world I'm so despeately clinging to finally disappears and -

---  
please review. Next chapter coming soon.


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